GUNS Magazine History of the Bolt-action

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The Savage 1899 was ridiculously ahead of its time. Its rotary magazine,
unlike the tubular magazines of its rivals, adapted to newer sharp-pointed bullet
designs. Drilling and tapping were the only things needed to make a scope practical.

The bolt-action is by far the most popular action type for most sporting purposes. For younger shooters, I suppose this is considered the natural order of things yet it wasn’t always so. During the late 19th century and well into the 20th century, bolt-action rifles were primarily military arms as bolt-action sporting rifles didn’t really become dominant until after WWII.

In the first few decades of the 20th century, the lever-action was the choice of most American hunters. Marlin and Remington pump-action rifles were quite popular, as were semiautomatic Remington and Winchester rifles. One famous example was baseball legend Babe Ruth who loved hunting and fishing. In 1938 Outdoor Life had a story about the Babe hunting deer and moose in Nova Scotia using a .401 Winchester model 1910.

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A trio of modern bolt-action sporters capable of taking deer at 6 yards
or 600. From left, the Weatherby Vanguard 6.5 Creedmoor with Leupold
3.5-10x40 scope, Tikka T3 .260 Rem., Leupold 3.5-10x40, and the Tikka
T3 6.5x55 with Nightforce 2.5-10x42 NXS scope.

Time For A Change

I’ve often read the switch to bolt-actions took place in the 1920s. Thousands of soldiers had trained in the use of bolt-action rifles during their military service, and now back in civilian life, wanted similar actions for hunting rifles. There’s some truth to it but the change was more glacial than a tidal wave. During the 1920s American commercial production of bolt-action sporting rifles by American makers Remington, Savage, Winchester and Buffalo Newton totaled about 53,700 bolt-action rifles.

In the same time, frame production of lever-action rifles was more than 10 times as much. Savage with the Model 99, Winchester with the models 92, 94, 95, 53 and 55 made about 51,100 rifles in the ’20s. I can’t find Marlin production records for the 1920s but I wouldn’t be surprised if adding Marlin production brought the total to over 600,000 lever actions.

The 1920s also saw production of about 36,000 Remington pump actions, 20,000 Remington 8 semi autos and about 8,000 Winchester 1907 and 1910 semi autos. Among sporting rifles made in the 1920s by major American manufacturers, bolt-actions made up only about 7.5%.

Nonetheless the bolt-action, like the proverbial camel, had its nose inside the tent. In far-off Africa, bolt-actions were catching on for several reasons — availability, moderate price, magazine capacity, access to military ammunition and the ability to use long, powerful cartridges.

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A Marlin 1893 rifle in .38-55. A hunter with this rifle would have been
considered very well armed back in 1900 and wouldn’t be so badly off even today.

Remington followed up their models 14 and 141 pump action rifles with
the postwar 760 series, all of which were popular. This example is chambered
in .257 Roberts with a Weaver K3 scope.

Bring The Power

This last, I believe, is the #1 reason for the ascendancy of the bolt-action: the ability to use longer, more powerful cartridges. The 1920s was a relatively prosperous era. Hunters who had only pursued whitetail deer began to hunt elk, moose, mule deer, sheep, goats and even grizzlies. The old .25-35 and .30 Rem. started to look a little marginal. Cartridges such as the .30-’06, .270 and the wildcat .35 Whelen appealed to American hunters just as the .318 and 9.3x62 appealed to African hunters.

Demand for new firearms in the U.S. dropped sharply in the 1930s due to the depression but even so, the swing towards bolt-actions was evident. From 1930 to Pearl Harbor, lever-action production by Savage and Winchester fell by more than half, from 511,000 in the ’20s to about 250,000. Meanwhile, production of bolt-action rifles from Remington, Savage and Winchester nearly tripled to about 150,000 rifles.

Winchester shook up the rifle world by offering the .300 and .375 H&H cartridges in the model 70 at the same price as standard cartridges. The long, tapered .300 H&H with its gentle shoulder angle just begged for “improving.” Wildcatters fell on it like hungry wolves, blowing it out, sharpening the shoulder, shortening the case neck. In terms of performance, all were much the same but it was Roy Weatherby who achieved the greatest success. It’s often said Roy had a genius for publicity. I think his genius was a willingness to work all the hours of the day. As an old saying goes, genius is “1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.”

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This No. 1 Mk III Lee Enfield chambered in .303 British was made during WWI,
then put into storage and taken out again to serve in WWII. Many were later
“sporterized” as bolt-action popularity took off.

Change Starts Slow

In the postwar boom into the 1950s, demand for consumer goods was so strong manufacturers had little incentive to innovate — just make ’em and sell ’em. When demand began slowing down, the magnum boom intensified as old line makers like Remington and Winchester came out with magnum cartridges. As with the .30-’06 and its offspring, magnum cartridges were most often associated with bolt-actions.

There were other factors. Scope sights were becoming almost the universal choice and current bolt-action rifles came drilled and tapped for easy scope mounting. Some lever actions such as the Marlin 336, Savage 99 and the new Winchester 88 could be readily adapted to scope use but older top-ejecting designs were not so scope-friendly. Handloading was becoming wildly popular and was well suited to the strong, rigid bolt-action design.

Accuracy enthusiasts found bolt-actions provided consistent accuracy. As armies around the world transitioned to semi- and full-automatic rifles, hundreds of thousands of quality surplus bolt-actions flooded the market. The bolt-action sporting rifle was becoming identified with knowledgeable, skilled riflemen. We all want to be thought of as knowledgeable and skilled, especially when all it takes is buying something.

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